Unless you’ve been out in the middle of the woods battling feral wolves à la Liam Neeson, chances are you have probably discovered that YouTube shook things up recently. Launching their brand new layout yesterday, YouTube has totally redesigned the overall layout and flow of their site.

We’ve heard from dozens of viewers and creators, and the overall reactions towards the new layout have been a grab bag of apathy, guarded interest and complete hatred. YouTube’s updated layout is a huge change for the video-sharing site, and like most significant modifications, people are going to have some questions.

We’ve broken down YouTube’s new interface below to help creators and viewers wrap their heads around the update. So, before your grab your torches or laurel wreath, check out what the new YouTube is all about.

The updated “What to Watch” menu is something YouTube has been promoting extensively in interviews and blog posts. The new menu has been cleared of much of its past options, including “Trending” and “Popular.” Instead, YouTube has moved those options into a “Popular on YouTube” topic that viewers must subscribe to. This new homepage layout cleans up the once sloppy homepage and focuses more on subscriptions and YouTube recommendations.

The new “Subscribe” button just below a channel’s thumbnail is a huge perk for creators. Now, subscribing to a creator’s channel is as easy as clicking a single button. This new layout is all about getting viewers subscribed to as many channels as possible. The “Subscribe” button makes an appearance at almost every turn of this new layout.

You’ve probably noticed that the video viewer has been centered, which if you’ve been following YouTube’s move towards TV-style viewing, shouldn’t come as a surprise. Creators’ videos are front and center now, giving YouTube that TV and film feel. Nothing says “stay and watch forever” better than a screen right in your line of sight.

Probably the biggest star of YouTube’s new layout is the “More From” and “Guide” menus showing up to the left of the video viewer. This is a small but effective tool to help users stick within the types of content they typically watch. It seems at every turn, viewers will have something new to click on.

This does seem counterproductive to the YouTube’s push towards longer audience engagement, as having video recommendations to both the right and left of the video viewer doubles the chance that a visitor will leave what they are currently watching.

We want to know what you think of the new layout. Let us know in the comments below.